I'm Just a Girl With a Crush on You

Knelt by the small grave, wind whipping through her messy blonde hair, Rebecca Chase, or Becki as everyone called her, sat tears glistening in her blue-grey eyes as she softly spoke to her mother, who had been dead for six years. Seventeen years of age, Becki had moved to Washington when she was three with her parents and two older brothers, to a small gloomy town called Forks. Stubborn, optimistic, she wasn’t overly intelligent; an average student in other words, but could be clever in a logical way. Becki could be very loyal to those she cared about, but also could and would be horribly vicious if she was crossed. When she was eleven, Becki’s mother died giving birth to her younger brother Tai, leaving them a somewhat broken family. Her father, Jimmy Chase hit the bottle, refusing to go near Tai, which was until his younger brother Allan kicked his ass and made Jimmy see sense. Ever since then the small family got on fine, but every year on the anniversary of Kim Chase’s death, a dreary mist seemed to cloud them, leaving them slightly miserable, till the next day came and they learnt to just get on with it. Becki sniffed, fixing the lilies against the black marble gravestone, remembering that awful day as if it had been yesterday, Kim had been suffering severe migraines for weeks, but put it down to the pregnancy, apparently headaches were normal in the second and third trimester, however, it had turned out to be swelling on the brain and during the stress of Tai’s birth Kim had suffered an aneurysm, it was too late before anyone realised. After all when an aneurysm struck, you had roughly seven minutes, before the brain died, after that there was no hope.

With a soft sigh escaping her, Becki got to her feet, settling her hand onto the cool marble stone.

“Bye mum, I’ll see you tomorrow”.

The evening had grown frigidly cold, not surprising considering they were in winter now and the cold weather always seemed worse in Forks, trudging past graves of all shapes and size, Becki frowned at the bruised colour of the sky. A storm was coming, she just hoped she was home before it hit.

Skirting along the edge of a leafy forest, trees waving pleasantly at her in the wind, Becki stopped looking about and finally came to the decision to cut through the forest as a shortcut to the main road. Taking tender steps down the slippery slope, Becki ventured deep into its lush leafy confines. A pretty light broke in through the trees guiding her way, but as she walked Becki realised it was growing darker by the minute and then the rain came, slapping down in great waves of wet. Becki cursed irritably and began walking quicker, desperate to get home. Trees loomed menacingly over her, dark shadows swaying in the breeze making Becki’s heart thump forcefully against her ribs as fear began to set in, the last of the light disappeared beneath the horizon dousing the land in complete inky darkness and with the skies being so cloudy, Becki didn’t even have the moon or stars to guide her way. Stopping short, breathing heavy, Becki let a sharp scream, when a shrill sound erupted, cutting through the silence. It took her a second to realise it was her phone blaring noisily from her pocket. Letting out an exasperated oath, Becki pulled the vibrating machine from her pocket with numb fingers and answered it with a crisp.

“Hello”.

“Becki, jeez, where the hell are you?” Sounded the annoyed tones of her eldest brother Mark, “Dad is freaking out, you were suppose to be home two hours ago...”

“I know and I’m sorry, I’m on my way home now”, Becki snapped, jumping a little when a streak of lightening set the sky ablaze.

Unfortunately, that was when her cell decided to die.

“Crap”, Becki swore angrily, turning in a circle.

Suddenly, her world seemed to fall away and Becki found herself falling, tumbling down a steep slant of earth she hadn’t realised she was so close to. Shocked screams escaped Becki, along with cries of pain as she cut and bruised herself on the way down, finally coming to a stop, she struck her head roughly against a gigantic rock and her world went black.

*

Jimmy Chase was absolutely frantic, looking as if he was about to punch Chief Charlie Swan dead in the mouth.

“I’m sorry Jimmy”, Charlie apologised, “but I gotta ask...”

It was a beautiful morning, not sunny, but it was dry and brighter, but still frigidly cold. Becki had been missing all night and when Jimmy woke to find her bed hadn’t been slept in he had immediately rang the police.

“I saw her last time yesterday at around two, she said she wanted to go see her mum’s grave...The boys already looked, she’s nowhere near there...” Jimmy responded frantically.

“We’ll have a look ourselves, just to be sure”, Charlie said gently.

He didn’t mention there was a slight chance she may have gone into the forest and gotten lost or worse. Promising to send word the minute Becki was found, Charlie left, while Jimmy resumed his frantic pacing.

*

Wandering through the damp, half-dry undergrowth, Jacob Black, a seventeen year old boy made his way deep into the thicket, in hopes of some peace and quiet. The sun glinted the odd time through the clouds off his golden coloured skin, short black hair, soft and shiny, lovely hazel eyes searching the area when, to his astonishment, they landed upon, clearly, a human figure only a few feet away. Closing the space between him and the motionless body, Jacob crouched and gave the unconscious girl a gentle shake. It took about four tries, before Becki finally came to with a loud groan. Lids fluttering open, she set her blue-grey eyes upon, in her opinion, on the most handsome boy she had ever seen.

The second she looked at him Jacob felt everything abruptly change and the girl seemed to glow with an enchanting light that enveloped him in blissful warmth. Only then did he realise he had imprinted on her.

“Eh, hey”, Jacob muttered blushing madly.

Becki blinked, heart racing a little at how handsome the boy was.

“Eh, hello...What happened...?” She asked groggily.

Sitting up, she felt her stomach heave horribly, a low groan escaping her. Bad nausea caused by the blow to the head she took, Becki figured she had a mild concussion. Worried, Jacob helped her to her feet, keeping a firm hold of her when she swayed, legs feeling awfully like jelly, Becki was convinced she was going to pass out again when suddenly the ground disappeared, it took her a moment to realise Jacob had lifted her into his strong, overly warm arms. She blushed a lot, but didn’t protest, convinced she wouldn’t get home on her own power, instead she said.

“Um, my name is Becki Chase...”

He smiled warmly down at her while he trudged out of the looming woodland, the sun now completely hidden.

“Jacob Black...”

“Oh, you’re friends with Leah and Seth”, Becki asked timidly.

“Yes, you know them...?”

“Yeah, I’ve been friends with them since we were little”, she responded.

After that the conversation seemed to die, leaving a horrible unbreakable silence between them. Becki couldn’t help but feel safe in Jacob’s arms, but how could that be? She had only just met him. That was how the imprint worked, Jacob felt the feelings instantly, but it would take Becki sometime. The thought nagging him now, was how the hell would he tell her, how on earth would he explain? We’ve imprinted, oh and by the way I turn into a wolf the size of a racing horse! He was terrified to think how that conversation would end and groaned innerly. The thickness of trees lessened and Becki was glad to see larger bits of light breaking through, sprinkling the spacious thicket in wondrous beams of light.

Nose wrinkling, Jacob picked up on a scent he recognised near the edge of the forest, they must’ve been looking for Becki.

“Charlie”, he called when he was close enough.

Several bushes down, Charlie appeared alongside Becki’s two older brothers and half the town of Forks, including his daughter Bella and the Cullen’s, Becki never understood why but the Cullen’s, with their perfect flawless appearance, bright ochre eyes and enchanting beauty always made her awfully wary, as if she should know they were dangerous. Relief flooded Mark and Shane’s features as they passed out Charlie to get to her, gently taking her from Jacob and carrying her toward Carlisle Cullen who waited to examine her. Becki felt a little reluctant about that, but sat well behaved anyway as Carlisle gently prodded the back of her head with cool fingers. Spikes of pain made her wince, eyes tearing up a little as the Doctor cleaned the cut up, saying she wouldn’t need any stitches. After, as everyone looked on, Carlisle knelt before her checking her responsiveness.

“Hmm, she has a mild concussion”, he finally said lifting his butterscotch eyes to look at Shane and Mark, “other then that she’s perfectly fine”.

Tenderly, almost as if he was careful of his strength, Carlisle helped Becki to her feet.

“I would advice you to take it easy the next couple of days and if you feel dizzy or faint, come straight to the hospital...”

Becki nodded mumbling a thanks, before following after her brothers, who weren’t too impressed with her, she stopped briefly settling her blue-grey eyes on Jacob and smiled softly before walking away from him, though for some bizarre reason it felt awful to do so.

*

Three days later after her little accident, Becki was back at school acting as normal, glad she had escaped being grounded, although her Dad did yell himself hoarse at her, but she couldn’t really blame him, what she had done was awful. Not that her thoughts remained on that for long, no, every waking moment she thought of Jacob. Becki hadn’t seen him since Jacob had helped her that day and it was driving her mad, to the point she was considering driving all the way to La Push just to talk to him, but then she would remind herself, she didn’t really know him, they had only ever met once so she shouldn’t be feeling what she was feeling and yet she did. She felt as if she couldn’t breathe the longer she was away from Jacob, but damn it, that made no sense. Furiously confused Becki slammed her locker door shut.

“Oooo, someone’s in a bad mood”, Mike Newton said as he stopped next to her grinning cheerfully.

“Hey Mike”, Becki said, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

Turning she made her way toward the exit, Mike following like a little pup.

“So, a bunch of us are going to the movies tonight, you wanna come...?” He asked Becki hopefully.

“Sorry Mike”, she answered quickly, “I’ve a tonne of homework to catch up on...”

A half-truth, but at that point Becki didn’t really care; she was tired of Mike asking her out.

“Oh, okay”, he responded sulkily before walking off.

Before he could come back, Becki quickly made her way outside and was stunned to find Jacob leaning casually against her black jeep. Her heart leapt roughly against her ribs at the sight of him and she found herself walking toward him, desperate for the closeness. Becki smiled sheepishly up at him.

“Hey”, she said softly, a light pink flush rising into her cheeks.

“Hey Becki”, Jacob said cheerfully, yet nervously in her opinion.

“What are you doing here?” Becki finally asked, when the silence became too much.

Jacob shuffled on his feet, chewing on his bottom lip before finally letting out a sigh.

“I need to talk to you”.

Hmm that didn’t sound good, but Becki followed him anyway in the direction of the forest that surrounded the school like a warm hug, for several minutes they walked, Becki having some difficulty keeping up with Jacob’s long lean strides until finally the golden skinned teen came to a stop. Jacob turned slowly dark eyes falling upon Becki, how the hell was he going to tell her? With a resigned sigh he began to speak.

“Do you know when I found you in the forest; did you feel anything weird since?” Jacob asked her, eyes soft and gentle.

Becki was stunned, did he know of the emotions she was feeling toward him? Oh God, now she truly did feel like an idiot. Burning bright red, Becki nodded.

“I can’t seem to stop thinking about you and being away from you, well, it hurts, like I can’t breath”, she admitted.

Jacob nodded.

“I can explain why that is...”

Becki’s head shot up and she found herself taking a few steps closer to him, finally she asked.

“Why is that?”

Jacob released a breath and spoke rapidly.

“It’s hard to explain, but I can tell you the rest after, I was born with a special gene that allows me to shape-shift into a wolf, eh, when my kind comes upon our soul mate we-we imprint and fall in love immediately, it takes you a little longer though to feel it back...”

Falling silent, Jacob watched for her reaction, Becki’s blue-grey eyes had gone wide and the colour had drained from her face, but suddenly her cheeks flushed bright crimson, eyes narrowing to slits, her body vibrating with hot ferocious fury.

“How dare you”, Becki finally shrieked startling Jacob, especially when hot tears began dribbling from her damp irises, “how dare you make fun of my feelings”.

“Becki, I’m not lying, I swear, I can show—“

“No, just stay away from me”.

Becki howled and before Jacob could stop her, she darted past him, running deeper into the large woodland. All Becki could hear was an angry ringing in her ears and her heavy breathing as she sobbed. How could she have been so stupid? She felt as if she were in love with Jacob, but all he thought of it as was nothing more then a stupid joke.

Several times she fell over many brambles, branches catching on her pretty red jacket, until finally Becki escaped the shrouded trees, breaking free into a large green clearing. In the centre of it, she collapsed in a breathless heap. How could he say such awful things to her? It made Becki shake with rage, but quickly enough her fury ebbed and swiftly receded and she felt panicked now, she was deep in the forest, not too sure where and had no idea how to find her way back out, and to make matters worse a deep guttural growl sounded not to far from where Becki knelt.

Slowly the young teenager turned and stood, freezing in place when her blue-grey eyes fell upon a huge very annoyed bear, the animal eyed her through small beady black eyes, his fur matted and bloody just above his right shoulder it was hurt and very irritable. Naturally, Becki took several hasty steps back, but that was obviously a mistake, because the huge brown-furred beast howled and surged toward her. Resigning herself to the fact that she was about to die, Becki clasped her eyes firmly shut and waited for death, but it never came, instead she felt a whoosh of cold air strike her skin, as if something had just sped past her and suddenly the bear was yowling in agony. Opening her eyes Becki was almost sure she was about to faint when her irises fell upon a large russet coloured wolf fighting off the irritated bear and to Becki’s amazement the large wolf was winning. After a moment of fighting, when the bear finally realised that he could no longer fight, it backed away slowly, leaving Becki and the wolf alone. Her first instinct was to run when the creature turned to look at her, but she found herself gasping aloud when she realised she recognised his warm eyes.

“J-Jacob”, Becki stuttered.

In response Jacob let out a cheerful bark, and Becki couldn’t help but laugh, all her anger forgotten, it was at that point, that Becki realised she would love him forever.